Completely Corrupt
by Beaumren Trill
Summary: Metallic screeches of pain from five different cores echoes over the loud speaker in the laboratories.  The shocks and system purges scramble your data stores. ... But she had gotten away.


**Trill: ** Fact/Chell prompt filled for a friend.

* * *

><p>Narrow red beams swept over the test room. It had been inactive for a while, and the human was not making much progress. In fact, all progress had been halted because the frailty of her inferior, organic, mass could not be run endlessly. She needed rest, and decided to take it in one of the completed testing chambers that were a little less... lethal.<p>

Lights buzzed, synthetic emotion injections coursed through tubes and hoses. She _had_ to get this subject testing again! Opening a new cryogenicly frozen subject would take too long- the starting tests too simple- ; it would not giver her the relief she wanted. Nay, the relief she _needed_!

Wires sparked, arches of electricity hummed as she thrust out a surge of power, trying anything she could to get some kind of relief.

"GET HER MOVING!"

The command is wirelessly transmitted to all functioning robots, turrets, anything that could be used to make the worthless girl start testing, again!

"Fact: She is not worthless if she is needed."

"SHUT UP. SHUT UP. SHUT UP. SHUT UP. Why do I have to put up with you?"

"We are a part of you, now. Having been integrated into your systems thoroughly enough that you could not-"

"Could not function properly without a complete reconfiguration of the original database in which we are based from. I know. If you are so smart, how did you not notice the _fact_ that the question was rhetorical?"

"..."

"That is what I thought." 

You go back to your own (corrupt, though you would never admit to such a thing) processing.

GLaDOS is desperate. She is desperate for something, or someone to test, since the simulation robots became beyond repair from her testing brutality.

They _were_ perfect for testing... but they were lacking. Results were inefficient, and thus for of no viable use. P-Body and Atlas lacked the same drive for survival as the humans did. They came close- as all AI beings did to their human creators- but no cake.

Fact: That joke was funny, and you knew it would be. All of your facts are nearly accurate in most aspects. You are the best sphere. You are the most attractive sphere. You are the fact sphere.

Fact: You want to save this girl's life.

Where did that come from? Oh... Right, you share an interface with all the other spheres, as well. Someone, you are not entirely sure who, wants Chell to live for some reason. Is it pity? Remorse? Perhaps it's grotesque brutality and greed. No matter, the fact is someone wants her to live: and you agree.

You turn your gaze to the screens dotted around the room. She has blown out the cameras in so many testing rooms, that it is hard to pin point her location. You know she is still there. You can _feel her_. But because of half her body being covered in Aperture tech, you cannot find her exactly.

This poses a problem to GLaDOS, who is experiencing euphoria withdrawals. As only an attachment, you do not suffer the effects of the (lack of) testing procedures. Movement catches your ocular unit, and you focus in on a screen to your right. The camera was shot, but it is still working (hanging by the wires, judging by the way the room appears to be turned slant-ways.)

The flickering image on the screen is not much to look at, and you are about to turn away before you notice the splash of color. It's bright orange... That room has no repulsion gel in it, and you know for a fact that there is nothing resembling that color material-wise in the surrounding areas. You are slightly puzzled by the color, the rest of the object obscured by a pillar. Perhaps if the camera was on its stand properly, you would have a good view, but as the case is, you do not-

THERE!

Movement!

Your ocular plates narrow, and the lens of your eye zooms in more on the screen. The orange seems to flicker in movement, again, and soon a leg appears. It's Chell. She is hiding in a room that once had those electronic blue bridges.

You glance back at GLaDOS, who is still lost in her own angry thoughts - the anger core has made her quite hostile; more so than before- then back to the screen. With a quick signal to by pass hers, you try to wiggle the camera. One of the rotors is still attached, and the camera jiggles some. But the movement has given you what you want: a clear picture of the girl.

She's tired, you judge. Her skin is pale, face some what sunken in. Clothes are torn, and if the screen stops jumping long enough, you can see dark bags under her shut eyes. She has several wounds that are healing up, but one looks infected. How long has she been hiding this far back? Did she just start walking in reverse, hoping to stay away from anything new?

It is a grand possibility she was trying to run, but there is a simple fact you know to be one hundred percent accurate: There is no escape unless you enter the highest chamber, and confront GLaDOS herself. No one has ever made it that far, though.

You zoom out, and stare at the screen a few more hours, glancing else where when your main body ( a she- bitch... er... witch. Looks like Anger is getting to you, too) turns even the slightest in that general direction. You don't want her to see. You can't let the human girl be found out. You go as far as turning of the monitor, even though there is a chance you will lose the signal, a few times when she turns her body more than a little.

GLaDOS is getting desperate. She has assembled mangled turrets that are crawling around through many of the completed levels, trying to find anything alive to shoot. They go about their business, mindlessly running the halls with only one purpose: to shoot. A few more hours pass- thirteen, your counter ticks, in total since Chell disappeared from the radar- and you continue to watch her without getting caught.

But then it changes. The turrets enter from the other side of the room. They cannot see her yet... but they will. They will, and you can't let them. You send out a command for them to turn around, but it's too late. The shots ring out, and GLaDOS has her entire being pulling to see the action.

"Fact: You solve the test by-"

Metallic screeches of pain from five different cores echoes over the loud speaker in the laboratories. The shocks and system purges scramble your data stores.

"Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve."

"Pens. Pens. Pens. Pens. Pens. Pens. Pens."

"Apples. Oranges. Pears. Plums. Kumquats. Tangerines. Lemons. Limes. Avocado. Tomato. Banana. Papaya. Guava."

"Error. Error. Error. File not found."

"Error. Error. Error. Fact not found."

Finally, the surge stops, and you lift your optical to the screen. The turrets are on the ground, having shot each other, and you catch the fleeting glimpse of her disappearing in to an open portal. Your becon turned the turrets around just in time, and the shooting woke her.

She got away.

You helped her get away.

Fuck, you're in trouble, now.

Fact: You just saved her life, and you have no regrets.


End file.
